Commonwealth Institute Conference
(1966)

A one-day conference for sixth-forms from various schools in the area was held at St. Nicholas G.S. on Thursday, 13th October, 1966. Students from Harrow County, Merchant Taylors, Hayes Grammar. Northwood College, St. Helen's, St. Mary's, Vyners, Northwood Secondary, and St. Nicholas attended, making a total of about 150 girls and boys.

The purpose of the conference was to study the problems of independence facing some of the countries in the British Commonwealth.

The morning session, opened by Mr. D. W. Edgington of the Commonwealth Institute, took the form of talks by experts on African affairs: Rev. P. Martinson of Ghana, who spoke on the political and constitutional problems of independence, and Dr. B. W. Hodder of Queen Mary College, London, who dealt with the economic and social aspects.

An excellent lunch was then provided by Mrs. Henderson and company in the Junior Common Room. The afternoon session began with group discussions, when the students were divided into small groups under their own leaders in order to discuss the morning's talks, and to formulate questions for the Open Forum which followed. Here the questions were put from the floor to the speakers, and the subsequent discussions completed a valuable and informative conference.

F. S. SMITH